VINTAGE publish On Tyranny in London poster installation

15 March 2017

In an industry first, VINTAGE is publishing the whole text of On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snder in a poster installation on Leonard Street (London, EC2A) for 1 week from Monday 27th March as a tool, a provocation and a rallying call. The posters have been designed by Suzanne Dean, Creative Director at VINTAGE and her team in collaboration with students from the Graphic Design course at Kingston University as part of an ongoing artistic partnership.

This book is an attempt to convert dark experience into enlightened resistance, and as such it is an homage to my teachers and to their teachers, people who experienced Nazism, fascism, and communism. Just as the text reaches back through the decades of the twentieth century, so too do these remarkable artists refer to the styles of the period, in their own way rendering homage as they communicate.

Stuart Williams, Publishing Director at The Bodley Head, said:

It’s hugely inspiring to see a brilliant idea realised in such a creative, collaborative way. Every one of these posters is individually striking and their collective impact is going to turn heads and concentrate minds on Timothy Snyder’s indispensable book.

Suzanne Dean, Creative Director at VINTAGE said:

Each chapter has been interpreted by a different designer. This gives each poster in the series its own visual character. It was the sort of project that would benefit from different voices. It was an opportunity. I asked the Head of Graphic Design at Kingston University, Rose Gridneff, if she might have students willing to get involved in this project. The students were briefed. The designers in-house were briefed. We each had a few days to complete our poster. For the VINTAGE design team we suddenly had a very different proposition in scale, from our usual book cover. When a poster was printed out, to actual size, it covered the wall of my office.

William Smith, Creative Manager at VINTAGE said:

On Tyranny doesn’t make you feel better about the current state of the world, but it does make you feel less helpless. We’re very excited to make such a crucial book available to the public in this disruptive way. Many thanks to Jack Arts, without whom we couldn’t have made this project a reality.